Peruvian President Pedro Castillo opened on Wednesday in Lima the 52nd General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), which until next Friday will promote agreements to fight inequality and discrimination in the hemisphere.
“Believing that the work of this Assembly will make the people of America able to fight together against inequality and discrimination, I declare this fifty-second regular session of the Assembly open,” he said.
At the Lima Convention Center, the President said he was honored that his country was the host of this event, as it reaffirmed Peru’s commitment to the values and institutions of the inter-American system.
This is an excellent opportunity for foreign ministers to gather the “valuable contributions” of various organizations, economic sectors and social actors that are driving “important changes” in the region and incorporate them into an earlier round of dialogue. , he added.
Castillo also welcomed the choice of the motto “Together against inequality and discrimination” for this rally, since these phenomena “not only continue, but also spread and deepen throughout the continent”.
“Inequality and discrimination are a constant threat to the values for which the people of America have agreed to live together. Moreover, they undermine our sense of belonging and feed and perpetuate distrust of democracy,” he said.
The head of state stressed that the effective fight against inequality has to do with reducing poverty levels and developing policies to redistribute wealth and overcome broad social inequalities.
On the other hand, President Castillo emphasized that it is still necessary to break the barriers of discrimination that societies “try to deny in order to cover the hate campaigns that have unfortunately been launched in many countries of the hemisphere”.
In this regard, he emphasized that the 52nd OAS General Assembly is an opportunity to address these issues at the regional level with the openness and urgency that the situation requires.
For his part, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro warned that politics and the economy are currently “polarized,” a contributing factor to regional violence. Therefore, it is necessary to find solutions quickly.
He estimated that the education of the next generation is necessary for development, creating space for the fight against violence and the violation of human rights.
If this does not happen, “we are fighting against peace”.
Delegations from more than 30 countries will participate in the various plenary sessions of this OAS General Assembly, which is returning to face-to-face meetings after the pandemic, with at least 24 foreign ministers leading their delegations.
This is the third time Peru has hosted an assembly of the multilateral organization, as Lima also hosted the 27th and 40th ordinary sessions in 1997 and 2010.
